How to import CSV or JSON to firebase cloud firestore

Is there a way to import CSV or JSON to firebase cloud firestore like in firebase realtime database?

Solution 1:

General Solution

I've found many takes on a script allowing to upload a JSON but none of them allowed sub-collections. My script above handles any level of nesting and sub-collections. It also handles the case where a document has its own data and sub-collections. This is based on the assumption that collection is array/object of objects (including an empty object or array).

To run the script make sure you have npm and node installed. Then run your code as node <name of the file>. Note, there is no need to deploy it as a cloud funciton.

const admin = require('../functions/node_modules/firebase-admin');
const serviceAccount = require("./service-key.json");

admin.initializeApp({
  credential: admin.credential.cert(serviceAccount),
  databaseURL: "https://<your-database-name>.firebaseio.com"
});

const data = require("./fakedb.json");

/**
 * Data is a collection if
 *  - it has a odd depth
 *  - contains only objects or contains no objects.
 */
function isCollection(data, path, depth) {
  if (
    typeof data != 'object' ||
    data == null ||
    data.length === 0 ||
    isEmpty(data)
  ) {
    return false;
  }

  for (const key in data) {
    if (typeof data[key] != 'object' || data[key] == null) {
      // If there is at least one non-object item in the data then it cannot be collection.
      return false;
    }
  }

  return true;
}

// Checks if object is empty.
function isEmpty(obj) {
  for(const key in obj) {
    if(obj.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
      return false;
    }
  }
  return true;
}

async function upload(data, path) {
  return await admin.firestore()
    .doc(path.join('/'))
    .set(data)
    .then(() => console.log(`Document ${path.join('/')} uploaded.`))
    .catch(() => console.error(`Could not write document ${path.join('/')}.`));
}

/**
 *
 */
async function resolve(data, path = []) {
  if (path.length > 0 && path.length % 2 == 0) {
    // Document's length of path is always even, however, one of keys can actually be a collection.

    // Copy an object.
    const documentData = Object.assign({}, data);

    for (const key in data) {
      // Resolve each collection and remove it from document data.
      if (isCollection(data[key], [...path, key])) {
        // Remove a collection from the document data.
        delete documentData[key];
        // Resolve a colleciton.
        resolve(data[key], [...path, key]);
      }
    }

    // If document is empty then it means it only consisted of collections.
    if (!isEmpty(documentData)) {
      // Upload a document free of collections.
      await upload(documentData, path);
    }
  } else {
    // Collection's length of is always odd.
    for (const key in data) {
      // Resolve each collection.
      await resolve(data[key], [...path, key]);
    }
  }
}

resolve(data);

Solution 2:

You need a custom script to do that.

I wrote one based on the Firebase admin SDK, as long as firebase library does not allow you to import nested arrays of data.

const admin = require('./node_modules/firebase-admin');
const serviceAccount = require("./service-key.json");

const data = require("./data.json");

admin.initializeApp({
    credential: admin.credential.cert(serviceAccount),
    databaseURL: "https://YOUR_DB.firebaseio.com"
});

data && Object.keys(data).forEach(key => {
    const nestedContent = data[key];

    if (typeof nestedContent === "object") {
        Object.keys(nestedContent).forEach(docTitle => {
            admin.firestore()
                .collection(key)
                .doc(docTitle)
                .set(nestedContent[docTitle])
                .then((res) => {
                    console.log("Document successfully written!");
                })
                .catch((error) => {
                    console.error("Error writing document: ", error);
                });
        });
    }
});

Update: I wrote an article on this topic - Filling Firestore with data